Includes bibliographical references and index

The world according to Feynman -- The mother of all physics problems -- The lay of the land -- The myth of uniqueness and elegance -- Thunderbolt from heaven -- On frozen fish and boiled fish -- A rubber band-powered world -- Reincarnation -- On our own? -- The branes behind Rube Goldberg's greatest machine -- A bubble bath universe -- The black hole war -- Summing up

The beginning of the 21st century is a watershed in modern science, a time that will forever change our understanding of the universe, Susskind contends. Several decades ago, he introduced the revolutionary concept of string theory to the world of physical science. In doing so, he inspired a generation of physicists who believed that the theory would uniquely predict the properties of our universe. Now, in his first book, Susskind argues that the very idea of such an "elegant theory" no longer suits our understanding of the universe, and that our narrow 20th-century view of a unique universe will have to give way to the much broader concept of a gigantic cosmic landscape--a megaverse, pregnant with new possibilities.--From publisher description

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews